The rush of NHS hospital Trust insolvencies predicted by The Slog back in the Autumn of 2011 finally burst into the open this morning, with Coalition bollocks being spewed out from every available source. The full set of Slogsaying on this one can be viewed here, but the most succinct para is probably this one from May 19th this year:

‘Since May 2010, the 23 private companies working with the NHS have made £1.4 billion in profit. Next year they will make even more, because the monies that should’ve gone into hospital updates and hardware budgets have been diverted towards primary care practitioners preparing to work with and/or hand over to big suppliers in the private sector. It’s perfectly obvious that, starved of funds, within the next eighteen months many local hospital Trusts will either go bust, or require increased private sector services which in turn point to the need for some form of private sector merger, takeover or joint venture.’

The Telegraph reports this morning (and it’s that Bobby Winnett again, folks) that Lansleyite teams are going into seven NHS Trusts…and as ever, Bobby has written it word for word in the best possible Mailese:

‘Simon Burns the health minister said that he will be sending in “hit squads” to make savings at hospitals where….a “cavalier disregard” for taxpayers’ money forced hospitals to pay £242 for a padlock to be changed and £466 for a new light fitting….Mr Burns said officials have identified £1.5 billion of savings which can be made….Seven hospitals got it horribly wrong. It is an absolute disgrace.”

Hmm. Let’s just look at where the ‘disgrace’ lies here, Mr Burns. First, most of this is PFI stuff….and P stands for Private, n’est-ce pas? The same private parts that very nearly f**ked up the Olympic Games thanks to G4S…which has just been handed another plum contract to investigate the Army’s wickedness in Iraq.

Second, he said ‘officials’ had identified £1.5bn of savings therein. But they haven’t gone in yet…so how knoweth they that the savings are there? Or are they, in fact, the same ‘officials’ who approved the 500 quid lightbulbs? You can have notice of those questions – but a reasonably quick response would be good.

And third (natch) the classic Mail/Sun shock horror giving up, um 2 (two) examples…obviously pulled at random from over 14.3m transactions made by the NHS per annum…all by ‘officials’.

Burns, of course, is what pants-on-fire do. But before anyone else yet again writes me off as a Commie, let’s get real:

1. The Slog said this would happen two seconds after Lansley’s cynical award of more funds to a primary care sector whose hardware needs are but a fraction of those required by NHS hospitals….and slaveringly desired by the private healthcare sector.

2. Burns is trying to suggest here that the NHS is ‘disgraceful’ in some way. I happen to think that it is an organisational disaster with sloppy standards in most departments, but the disgrace here, Simon dearie, lies with the management bighair imported from the private sector and the financial fraud that came from the private finance initiative.

3. I also believe that it is in the bighair-meetings-jargon-drivel area that the overmanning still pertains. But these folk are nowadays civil servants, and must not be fired. So let’s chalk up another disgrace for the civil service trade unions and Humphrey Empiah-Billda types, shall we?

Look, the NHS is a complex issue muddied by Unions, mentally odd consultants from another planet, very poor communications, lousy weekend continuity, and equally poorly trained nurses. Point 3 above exemplifies yet again why I say stop all this ‘hands off OUR nhs’ rubbish: it hasn’t been our nhs for forty years: it’s been a Labour v Tory football match, with the civil service incompetently handling crowd control.

In the medium term, my solution remains the same: take the NHS away from the State, and keep it out of the hands of medical insurers. Not only does the private sector have a dire track record in the US, the sums in relation to affordability for the average Brit simply do not add up. Mutualising the NHS is by far the best solution.

This is worse than privatisation by stealth: it is sloppy privatisation, abrogation of social responsibility – and above all, a devious misuse of public funds to make private medical providers even richer.

Nothing will stop this now. In its usual anarchic manner, the Hard Left will wait until it’s a done deal, and then start getting violent; while the Right will call it good management and to hell with the consequences. Localised mutualisation with a responsibility for thrift and care quality was the obvious way to go…but that’s not how this rotten British Establishment plays the game.

Those in this oligarchy are the real disgrace here. Let us all remember how this happened – and how it could have been avoided – the next time someone calls this site closet Tory or disguised Socialism. This site is for clearing the whole sorry shower out and injecting some accountable decency into public life.

“take the NHS away from the State, and keep it out of the hands of medical insurers”

…eh so ho does it get funded then? with magical third way pixie dust??

You can’t point to “private sector failings” in a huge government organization where the government doles out the contracts to their friends – thats how socialism always worked (or rather, didn’t work). Take a look at something that actually is in the private sector: laser eye surgery. Well, all I can tell you is that its got better and cheaper at a stunning rate. Imagine we could extrapolate that success to every organ!

Take the heart. I hear a cardiac bypass costs around £30,000 on the NHS (or rather the NHS manages to spend £30,000). And for our obese lazy entitled population thats a lot of bypasses. What if we left it to the private sector? Cut out all the pen pushers, overspending etc. Maybe it could be done for £13,000?

Hardly an arm and a leg for life saving surgery. And now you see how the argument of “its too expensive” and it would be “unfair” just to expect people to pay for their healthcare fails. If you can’t be insured for, or if haven’t saved enough, or you can’t raise enough to get £13,000 for a heart bypass – then I guess you should’ve just laid off the doughnuts, pal, because it’s an insult to expect me to pay for your fat ass!!!

Hmmmm… so the child of some inept slapper who get herself pregnant will have to mortgage a kidney if it wants proper antenatal and postnatal care to be provided then? The kids of said doughnut eater will have to deal with the loss of a (admittedly dumb) parent and become a burden on the state themselves. I think your being a tad black and white here MP.

I do agree though that people who for whatever reason are not mentally equipped to live healthily either need to choose to pay increased National Insurance contributions (if they can) or undergo some kind of cognitive therapy. Waiting for them to become another statistic is plain stupidity.

No the answer is the give the slapper a choice. Either you and your family look after the kid or we put it up for adoption, preferably abroad, probably in the US where there is a shortage of white trash kids for adoption. Split the fees between the nhs and the slapper but set the fees high enough that the NHS does not lose money. The slapper can be in business putting one out each year and the day the white trash in America become a minority is put off for a little longer. We have thereby created a whole new export industry for the UK.

so what about the little tyke who got her stuffed in the first place? Has he no duties given that he was half of the child’s parentage?

Surely, if you are right, David, you could rightly say “the father and mother should both pay”. That does assume a small detail that the girl remembers which of the fly-aways she doted on actually planted the seed.

@Gemma
Does he have any rights as to whether a child is born after their mutual decision to have an encounter………. the responsability for pooping out a sprog is all hers darling (her body her choice – remember).
If she wants the child and he does not – she wins…….if he wants the child and she doesn’t – she wins !

Until we start making girlies responsible for the choices they make (if he has sex with her against her will it is rape – thus she controls the action before, during and after).

It might be unfortunate that biologically men cannot get pregnant but it is a fact. Dealing with facts is the only way to cure the problems. diverting the blame makes not one jot of difference. Not even for ‘girly victims’.

Is it beyond analysis that ‘cherry picking’ isolated medical procedures end up making the remaining NHS more expensive?

‘Cherry picking’ is such a poor reason to destroy a complex but still affordable health care for all UK citizens.

It is said, I have read, we spend on average 90 % of our individual NHS spend in the last 6 months of our lives.

I further note you do not ‘praise’ all those private Pip breast implants that the NHS has to correct nor comment on the enormous costs inflicted by foolish and enormously expensive PFI deals just to get NHS facilities off the national balance sheet.

Its very easy to bleat on about fat, lazy salad-dodgers spending all the taxpayers money while you are fit and healthy.

However, once you have retired and start to fall to bits through old age, the picture suddenly changes and without private medical insurance you too may find it difficult to get the treatment you need to continue living a normal life.

I agree that there is a lot of waste in the NHS and that savings coupld be made – mainly through cutting upper and middle management. But excluding people from treatment because of their social circumstances could inadvertently place you yourself at risk.

@Peterloo – I think that was the point MP was making, that if all those fat fu+kers chomping their way to obesity were stopped from becoming obese then there would be enough resources to put poor old Maxi back together again in his dotage.
If you smoke, your GP will not provide some medical services until you stop. So why not extend this practice to the obese. Get your weight down and you can access services.

the generation currently 50 and older who may or may not have led a healthy life and are starting to think of their healthcare needs have had a 40 year orgy of cheap credit. If they haven’t saved enough for proper free market healthcare (and as I pointed out, that should be far cheaper than public) let them sink – you really think more debts should be piled onto children and the unborn. Not only is that plain unfair, it will also ensure any chance of an eventual economic recovery is extinguished.

Personally I think all these people who have kept themselves up together and full of fitness thoughout their lives should be denied treatment for their worn out joints for enjoying themselves too much in their youth.

I know many people who have led fit and healthy lives excercising regularly and playing sports who have had knee ops, ligament damage etc etc during thier actively sporting lives – and go on to require legacy treatment as they age and their already damaged bodies cannot cope with the strains and stresses of later life.

OK Maxi, try this one: private sector cost to increase csf pressure and reduce blinding headaches: £7,300.
Don’t know about you mate, but that’s out of my league.
The pixie-dust thing is also a tad gratuitous: I’ve explained a million times here how it COULD be funded. By a combo of (a) not trying to do everything (b) DSS having its PAYE rake-off removed and (c) community funding via mutualisation a la ‘members’ model of building societies.
Answer me this: if 48% of UK folks managed to own their home thanks to a mutualised B Society movement, why couldn’t the same % have their own NHS via health savings schemes?
IT’S A NO-BRAINER – except for those who refuse to see it.

JW you are right – the true disgrace is what politicians and the private sector between them have done to the NHS.
From Tony Bliar’s Third Way to Camerlot’s ‘whatever the problem, privatisation is the solution’ bollocks.

Part of me would like to see Madame Guillotine fix the problem. Another part of me knows that that would not fix it.

But it might make a fine day out or some interesting viewing on the TV for a week or so :)

I think it could be tied in for a sort of lottery draw – whereby each of the potential candidates gets to pick a number – the machine selects the 5 lucky candidates and the bonus ball can select between rope chop or bullet to increase the variety. Hey – we could even sell tickets and use the money raised for good causes :)

‘Clearing the whole sorry shower out and injecting some accountable decency into public life.’
And you want the moon on a stick no doubt?
We are way beyond this happening. It’s just going to be a long painful slide into poverty and anarchy followed by the lights going out and food becoming the new currency with most of unable to afford to eat. And, of course the likes of Blair, Mandleson et al will be long gone.

The point of ‘our NHS’ isn’t sentiment or support for particular styles of management or structure. It is the provision of healthcare for a whole population from cradle to grave. If everyone is in, for their whole life, then all the insurance ‘risks’ become meaningless. You know exactly what you are going to face, what levels of which illnesses. All becomes susceptible to sensible planning, prioritisation, cost management and taxation to pay for it. It does not matter to such a system which individuals fall ill, or how often. What matters is the general health of the population.

Compare this with a system where individuals are separated from others by competition, the fear that one might gain advantage over another. Immediately, you open up the group to the circling wolves. Individuals lose the ability to cooperate. The whole population is at risk. Poor, paranoid, individualistic MaxiPsycho Rules (alone, and until his insurance runs out).

you got it exactly the wrong way round – no we have a system where individuals are separated from each other; its done via the state. Let individuals deal with each other freely and we will see costs tumble, standards soar.

And for you moralists claiming “we can’t just let the fat “f****ers sink”…really? So I’ll assume you’re ok with ladling the unborn with ever more debt, then? I’m yet to hear a reasonable suggestion of how we pay for this monstrosity. (just saying cut out the men in offices doesn’t cut it – the nation is bankrupt, and will be until children can be born free of the debt of their parents)

I can see where you are coming from, but what you are really saying is let those I do not like the lifestyles of just fook off and die !

Where do you stop the denial of medical assistance – to someone who cannot afford to pay, or someone who has kept fit but destroyed their body doing so ?

Either you provide medical assistance for all or you do not and tell those who cannot afford it that they just have to get on with dying or being cripples even though the technology to CURE them exists.

As someone who can have fairly callous opinions over certain things I cannot accept your concept of only helping those who live a lifestyle of which ‘I’ approve. ‘Lifestyle and medical assistance’ is totally different from ‘welfare as a lifestyle choice’.

Spot on, Sal
See my mutual model thread above.
Only the Left/Right Shibboleth vested interests are stopping us from leading the world in this.
As indeed they have left Britain behind the world in bloody everything.
I cannot stand all this bigotry masquerading as ‘business sense’. It’s bollocks.
Where the f**k is the voyager spirit? I’ve spent my life in business, and trust me, this is a soluble business problem if the will is there.
Is it??

I think a lot of the problem lies within some in our communities, not to mention from over seas, that this is a free for all country to live in. The whole point of having an NHS was to help people to access medical help when they became ill. This country was once rife with disease and disfigurments – due to lack of Health and Safety in some industries( No I am not talking about using cusioned paper clips to prevent a paper cut type of H and S). The shift has been (many thanks to the Pharma industries- snake oil producers) That ‘illness ‘ had now developed into an industry all on it’s own!! and people are ALL to happy to extract money from the cash cow. here are some Non illnesses:
*Removing tatoos
*Methadone project
*anti ooze drugs
*anti depressants- to cure all ( apparently people who break bones *suffer: due to psycological aftermath Hmm)
*smoking cessation classes
*removing breast implants
*giving breast implants ( to aleviate mental health issues)
*Gender change operations
*gastric band operations
*alcohol consumed ‘accidents’
*female circumcision ( yes it is illegal I know- but….)
*gender choice abortions ( again illegal but….)
Picking up the tab for knowingly inbreeding children who incur deformaties: both mental and physical. ( again illegal but…)

just a few to mention… Non of these conditions should be classed as ‘illnesses’ some are luxuries we can not afford to be honest. As for the people who ‘run’ this NHS, it is worth mentioning that public money should NOT be used to create profit. Ok, how do they get past that? Well they out- source and get their grubby lil hands on the cash. ( same as council contracts) The NHS is filled with unscrupulous people at all levels. It is a shambles to say the least, and can be easily fixed- by me- because I can see the rot and know how to stop it, sadly many others do too, but can only sit back and watch because we are not in positions to make changes-real changes it requires.
I agree with John’s comments and I would say that many people do too.

Seriously, though, you raise a good point. The rules of the NHS permit far too much deviation from the original objective. One place to start would be a solid charge for A&E work for anyone who is objectively tested to be drunk or drugged on arrival. Say £150, to be paid by credit card before any treatment given. As for the devious ways that officials can make money from the NHS, I don’t think we need to offer them any more clues, they can get away with terrific sums on their official salaries without needing to cheat as well!